Synthetic peptide vaccines generally comprise a synthetic copy of an immunogenic part of protein antigens. This approach to vaccine development has a number of advantages, including ease of synthesis, avoidance of potentially toxic biological by-products and straightforward characterisation.
A key issue in the development of peptide vaccines is the lack of immunogenicity displayed by peptides as sole vaccine components. It is usually necessary to include in the vaccine an adjuvant, designed to activate components of the innate immune system (e.g. Freund's adjuvant).
An alternative strategy in peptide vaccine design is to create self-adjuvanting vaccines in which the peptide epitope of interest is covalently linked to an appropriate adjuvant. Such self-adjuvanting vaccines may have enhanced antigen uptake, presentation and dendritic cell maturation compared to simple co-formulation of the antigen with an external adjuvant.
Several self-adjuvanting vaccines have been developed, but preparation of the vaccines can be complicated.
There is an ongoing need for new self-adjuvanting vaccines and new methods of making self-adjuvanting vaccines. It is an object of the present invention to go some way towards meeting these needs; and/or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.
Other objects of the invention may become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date.